faderift | [Closed] High Dragon, Bye Dragon

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[Closed] High Dragon, Bye Dragon

WHO: Anders, Nate, Merrill, Alistair, Rydia, Sam, Taas, Oghren.
WHAT: Gon' take care of a varmint.
WHEN: MApril/Cloudreach 26th
WHERE: The Hinterlands TM
NOTES: Violence, blood, fire, all the dragony things.

This area of the Hinterlands is on the jaggedy side, as many rocks as there are rolling hills, and right now, some of those rolling hills are also on fire. It might be an upgrade, considering they're normally bristling with bears. Or it might be a downgrade if you're flammable.

Which, since nobody thought to bring a golem along, the whole team is. At least there's no cat along for this trip?

The reports have the dragon in the Northern section, through a cave/outcropping thing, and while it's a bit of a trek to get out there, it's obvious this is indeed dragon territory. A few dragonlings wander the area, there's smoke and ash, there's fire, and sure enough, there's a whooshing of wings overhead. \

[[ooc: there is no tag order, I'll pop in with a gm-ish tag every four or five comments to keep the battle moving, and then after the battle I'll toss up a mingle header (or possibly a separate post, depending on what people would like.]]

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The dragonlings are the first to notice the approaching group and swarm, five of them all seeming to want a nibble of something a bit more alive than what's usually dropped down to them.

Mama dragon is nearby, you can hear her, but she's not dropped in just yet.

"So much for the element of surprise," he mutters. Not that their group is really made for sneaking around, but it would have been nice not to be immediately swarmed by dragonlings. At least where they're at, at the moment forces the young dragons to funnel in ahead of them rather then allowing for flanking.

Pulling out his sword Sam casts barriers over the group, while they're still together, sticking to the back for support at the moment.

Nathaniel generally considers mages to be the primary form of crowd-control, but he is better at a range, and he can pick off the dragonlings one by one without breaking a sweat. It's the mama that his arrows might be useless against. So he stands back, shooting at about .75 arrows per second.

"Has anyone truly managed to surprise a dragon?" It's a bit rhetorical, but he's curious. They've certainly never managed it, and this is his fourth.

As barriers are covered, Anders slams his staff into the ground and makes the earth roll underneath the dragonlings' feet, causing them to stumble into each other and get tangled up.

Luckily the mages and archer had someone like Oghren along. Who was as reckless as ever as he let out a cry and ran right over to the dragons with his axe in his hands. "Come put your sodding faces to my axes! I'll show you who is the better fighter!"

Sooooo surprise? Were they really wanting to go for surprise with Oghren on the team?

"Only with birthday gifts..." is Rydia's reply to Anders. How long has it been from the last time she properly joined a hunt? There is little she can offer in terms of defenses so she simply holds her whip with one hand while the other is already searching in her supply of potions.

"Well..." Rydia comments before chugging down a fire resistance potion "Let's open the dances." she raises her whip and the air crackles while she readies a thunder spell.

Everyone is so witty and talkative. Alistair's contribution is barely audible, muttered under his breath and inside his helmet, is, "Bloody hate — blighted scaley rats — "

Dragons are his favorite.

But he doesn't shy away from them. He knocks Samouel's shoulder with his armored forearm (shield arm, no point things in the face, don't worry) on his way past, a Jostle of Gratitude for the barrier, and follows behind Oghren because getting in front of Oghren doesn't seem like a good idea.

Better idea, maybe: swinging around to the side of the group of dragonlings while they're tripping over their feet and making a lot of noise, trying to make sure they don't get it into their heads to go after the ranged fighters.

The dragonlings are shrieking, apparently upset that their meal decided to fight back.

Arrows pin one to the shaking ground, slashing through its wings and pinning it to the rolling ground, axes slice and dice their way through another. While these two seem basically done for, the other three blighted scaley rats wiggle and stumble closer. Two head for Alistair as he's presented himself as such a delightful target, the last slashes for Oghren.

A fireball lands somewhat near the party, raising the temperature in the area without managing to hit any of them yet. Mom is home, and mom is not pleased.

This was a comment on his size wasn't it. That only one wanted to come after him. Totally a comment about how short he was. Well if ever there was a way to piss off a berserker, it was this. Oghren let out a roar as he went to slam his axe into the scaly thing. It had been designed for slicing down Darkspawn so of course it could handle these blighters.

Oh and he just sort of...took the slash. What? He had heavy armor on. No big deal, right?

That was his logic anyway. Not really thinking about the fact that he was going to need all that armor for when mommy landed and he was going to have to deal with her next.

"They're not that bad," Merrill chirps, apparently having overheard Alistair and finding it necessary to inflict some Optimism on the situation. Paralyzing Prison is, despite her words, cast on one of the dragonlings headed for Alistair. She doesn't stick around to watch it, though; the fact that a high dragon has already tossed a fireball at them has her rightfully on edge.

Sam's Barrier is reinforced with an Arcane Wall for the entire party as Merrill glances up, frowning slightly. "Look out for the big one!"

Taas is Excited™ and as soon as the gang starts fighting the dragonlings, he is roaring loud enough to surprise at least one of the little lizards. Then he's charging in like a wrecking ball. At least he was still lucid enough to avoid any of his friends. (Whose good idea was it to bring two berserkers to dragon land?)

This was quite possibly the best moment of his life. Maybe just slightly ranked beneath falling in love.

"Come on, ataashi!" He taunts, swinging his large dragon-tooth maul to crunch the dragonling while his focus remained on the incoming mother. It was probably a damn blessing that there were magic shields around, because otherwise he'd be crispy.

There is a gust of wind, and Nathaniel breathes it in deep. It is wind from the beating of wings, fresh with spring and woodsmoke. The thunder of her wings resounds in his chest, as if she beats his heart for him. It would be easy to let it go to his head. It almost does. But damned if this doesn't feel amazing, with a real dragon in the open air.

Over a ten-second interval, he looses seven arrows and nocks an eighth.

At the nudge, Sam gives a grunt, acknowledging Alistair's thanks while keeping his focus on the rest of the group. Or at least he's keeping tabs on everyone, because a lot of his attention is on Taas and Oghren who are currently yelling and barreling into the fight with as much recklessness one knows berserkers to have. The dragonlings seemed quite overwhelmed though, so no one looks to be in immediate danger.

The ball of fire that lands not too far from them does raise concern however, signalling the incoming of the mother. Well this was escalating rather quickly. He's thankful for Merrill's backup with the Arcane Wall, but with everyone shouting he'll have to think about thanking her about it later. In response Sam casts some ice magic over the fire to help bring down the flames, hopefully snuff some of it out, so that the heat doesn't start preemptively wearing down on their fighters.

"Not that bad? Dragons are awesome!" Is her loud reply before raising her hands and casting a wide thunder spell in the area trying to hit as many dracolings as she can- not a big effort on her part, true, but she's there to help with the big one and killing kids never really appealed her.

As long as the others are being fair and not inflicting any unnecessary pain and aren't in danger the summoner isn't going to use big spells on them. And even when the fireball hits not too distant from them -ugh she still fears fire more than she should- all she does is throwing a couple of energy darts against the small ones, hoping to help the others getting them as fast as possible.

The mother on the other hand... oh, it's not the fist time she's getting ready for an actual battle against a dragon, even if her experience comes from another world. "Time to dance..." Rydia takes a deep breath, keeping her position in the back, when she finally feels the older dragon's presence.

To dragonlings, all people are large.

Except dwarves.

But size differences don't help the energy-sapped dragonling that's hacked apart by Oghren, and backup doesn't help the one crushed by Taas' maul. The last one, trapped by Merrill's magic, weakened by Rydia, and given enough time to scream its rage, is shot through by Nate and for just a few moments there's breathing room. Slightly less-smokey breathing room thanks to Sam, no less.

And then a massive Fereldan Frostback that thinks she's quite awesome indeed lands on a nearby hill, wreathed with smoke and howling her anger before blowing fire in the direction of the mouth of the cave. Her dance card is empty, come fill it.

Well, a berserker will do what a berserker will do. In this case that means rushing forward with another battle cry to go and take on the beast that is on the hill. After all, Oghren thinks dragons are amazing.

He even turns his head to Taas and gives a wave of his hand just so the Qunari can see him. He thinks he's super great too and berserkers gotta berserk together.

"Come on! Let's go take that one on!" He's laughing even as he says it. Really Oghren is just hopeless.

Oghren and Taas happily rushing the dragon together. It's just how things are right now. Feel free to yell at them later.

The qunari's heavy feet crush dragonling bones beneath them, and while he can't hear the dragon's roar, his blood is singing and the vibration of her landing on the hill travels up his spine.

Good soldier training means he'll keep some focus on keeping the big bad away from the squishier people, though, and he challenges the beautiful creature again with a yell and a slam of his maul into nearby stone.

Look at them, Frostback! Ignore the people in dresses.

"I may not have thought through bringing two berserkers," Anders realizes out loud as the pair charges forward. He'd been thinking in terms of sturdiness, not tactics. It's a really good thing they have two spirit healers along.

At the very least, he can provide cover fire for the charging fighters, casting ice into the flames to create a steam. There's no mistaking where the dragon is, but this way maybe she can't quite tell where they are so well.

There's a laugh from Merrill at Anders' comment, at the delight of the berserkers charging forward. This is a fight, a dangerous fight, but right now- Merrill feels okay. She's back in Kirkwall, fighting a dragon with a ragtag team of adventurers. It feels like coming home.

Stone's Throw pulls her closer; one minute Merrill is there and the next she isn't, moving underground via magic. She pops up again by Oghren, needing to be closer for her next spell -- Arlathan's Grace erupts to deal damage to the great dragon.

"I don't think any of us really thought much about it until right now," he says with a huff in response to Anders's comment. He can't say he's surprised to see Taas and Oghren suddenly go charging off to the dragon, but it still has Sam pausing to watch them with some disbelief. What does surprise him is Merrill popping up alongside the two warriors and getting right into the fray.

Before the three of them get too far away from them, Sam makes sure to renew a barrier cast over them. They were... going to need it, making themselves prime targets like they had.

Alistair could totally have taken at least one of those dragonlings, but he isn't going to complain about other people handling it, probably. Not now, anyway. He might complain later, when everything is dead and he isn't risking any lives by stopping to complain. But right now he doesn't even actually have time to fully lower his sword and consider whether or not he should be disgruntled before the larger one lands and rattles him into raising it again.

That one won't be dead before he gets to it. If he gets to it. He starts after Taas and Oghren (and Merrill, Maker, though she probably wouldn't appreciate the concern for her safety) but turns to walk backwards for a few paces, looking at Nathaniel and the mages to make sure nothing else is headed for them in the meantime. Where there are five dragonlings, there are potentially twenty-five.

Blighted scaley rat bastards.

Edited 2017-04-29 02:32 (UTC)

The smash of a maul against stone has the Frostback's head jerking to the side, searching for the source. As it spots the qunari, it gives another angry roar and starts stalking it's way over, tail whipping back and forth in agitation.

Green strands shoot up from the ground, scoring the first hit, and the dragon ceases it's stalking of Taas and searches for a new target, hampered by the mist. But the mist doesn't stop it from trying to cover its bases, and it breathes fire out toward Taas and where it thinks the nature spell came from.

Meanwhile, her roaring and stomping have roused a few other dragonlings that were snoozing in the afternoon sunlight, much as Alistair suspected, and all six are swarming the tunnel mouth in hopes of an easy snack.

Anders is the first to act as the dragonlings approach. If their mother is breathing fire, then what little he's read about dragons suggests ice could be more useful here and he makes a flinging motion with his hand, sending ice spikes hurling at the two closest to him.

Dragons are always complicated, and always annoying, and if there had been any easier way of getting a high dragon corpse he would have taken it.

Unfortunately one can't find these in barrels the way they can moth-eaten scarves.

Okay now Oghren is actually sure that he's being ignored because he's tiny. That's the most insulting thing he's ever heard of and for that he goes right up to the thing and just starts wailing at the legs like a madman. Honestly it's the dumbest and least sneaky thing possible to do but Oghren's always had a temper. It's what makes him a great berserker. He can funnel that right into his fighting abilities here. Get it all out in...sort of but not really healthy ways?

Probably less than healthy right now because he's making himself extra annoying for this thing a million times his size as he roars loudly at it. "I! AM! NOT! THAT! SHORT!"

Soooooo yeah. Angry dwarf is angry about not being seen as main course too. Healthy look on the situation, right?

Of course there are more dragonlings, it wouldn't be fun ~~that's sarcasm~~ if there weren't. And of course they're coming to the tunnel while their group begins to split up.

Following Anders suite, Sam sends out blasts of ice magic, managing to freeze one in place and nicking another one, which comes right for him. With casting so many spells in quick succession he needs to pause so he doesn't drain himself too quickly - there is still a high dragon to fight after all. Instead Sam swings his sword at the dragonling, nicking once more since there is not quite a blade to see.

The barrier and Arcane Wall help absorb the fire as Merrill does a quick little dash to get out of the way. With Arlathan's Grace hitting the dragon, nature and magic are combining to heal her injuries as they inflict injuries on the dragon, so a slight burn isn't too bad. She can stay close for now, provide a pretty little distraction as the warriors hit hard.

Of course, then there are the dragonlings.

Death Cloud seems like a good answer; it adds more mist to the scenario to block the sight of the dragons, and while she has no illusions that it will do anything to the high dragon, some of the dragonlings might be hit with a curse or a hex.

Taas can smell burned hair and flesh, and he's not even aware it's mostly his own. All that mattered was to challenge this beast before him and making sure it didn't go for anyone without huge stabby weapons and armor.

All the training he had done recently was all for this - to keep his mind even while full of battlelust and the need to rage. Taashath can feel the sweet desire to let go, to break apart the world into only red and black - enemies and him. He can't allow that.

Fighting side by side with Oghren helps a little. They have similar battle styles, height aside, and it reminds him just a little of fighting in his karataam. He could do this.

"Ashkost kata!" He roars, snarling at the dragon as if he wanted to speak her language. Taas takes a swing, aiming his maul at a wing to try to cripple the beast from flying off.

The dragon jerks to the side, lashing with its tail against the irritation hitting its legs, trying to keep its eyes on the larger warrior and the little mage which is proving to be a challenge. Her children scream in rage and pain and the high dragon bats her wings before taking a couple of steps toward the cave entrance, but it's only a couple. She has to defend herself too, and both legs on her left side are already bleeding and hurting. She swings out with her right foreleg, intending to catch someone and snarling almost as if in response to what Taas has yelled.

In the meantime, the scaly, wriggly ratty dragonlings aren't having the easiest time. There's a cloud hurting them, ice being hurled, and now an invisible blade too. Really, their day just isn't going well. Two of the six are dead thanks to ice, one seriously injured thanks to the blade, and the three remaining ones are all moving a little slower, hurt by the magic swirling around them.

When the dragonlings appear Alistair is still walking backwards to check for them, so it's easy enough for him to slow and then start back toward the ranged fighters. Not that any of them are helpless. But he has a shield and heavy armor and he knows what his primary job is, what is nearly always has been: stay alive and keep things distracted by how delicious and/or annoying he is while other people kill them.

So the three dragonlings that are still mostly unscathed get his attention, and he does his best to get theirs. After a moment of hesitation he takes a deep breath and cuts through the edge of Merrill's cloud—which sucks, but he can take it, thanks lyrium—on his way to cutting between the dragonlings and group. From there he tries leading them on a slow, noisy chase a few feet sideways, getting in a few hits that are more about harassment than damage, come on, fight him, isn't he irritating—but lining them up, hopefully, for arrows in the eyes or whatever weird magic shit anyone else feels like.

Hearing Taas yell out has Sam looking up, assessing whether it was the warrior merely making noise or calling out. Seems it is the former, him and the others keeping the high dragon plenty occupied and not in serious danger. Yet.

Even if his dragonling is seriously injured, the momentary distraction is enough for it to get a hit in, breaking the last of his barrier and slicing across his arm that he brings up to block. The leathers only give so much protection, but prevent the claws from gouging, merely breaking the surface of the skin. In retaliation Sam takes the opportunity to swing at the exposed underside of the dragonling, sending it to the ground.

That leg did hit something. Namely a small dwarf who went flying through the air. It was a good flight and for that moment when he was in the air Oghren had one conclusion to make. One that was more like a confirmation of what he's already known.

Flying was the worst.

He landed hard and it almost seemed like he was stunned. Only then he was able to get up and was running right back at the dragon again laughter flooding the air around all the roaring. Sure he was bleeding from hitting his head but he didn't give a damn about that. This was a blast!

There's blood in the air and the dragon is going to have a hard time moving with those mutilated legs. That means the wings should be the next part, and Taas grins, swinging his mace again to see if he can get a good hit on the wing bone to ground the dragon forever.

She was a great challenge, this one. Fierce and beautiful and smart. She was looking for cover, it seemed - or going after her dying babies. Either way, it was amazing.

Taas is grinning like an idiot, continuing his loud battle cries and laughs to annoy her as much as possible. With him and Oghren being meat shields, mages and rogues should be able to take this beautiful beast down easily.

And line up the three dragonlings do, all intent on munching on the human that's come nice and close to them. It's not the smartest move they've ever made. The cloud keeps eroding at them, the blade slashes, and all three are whimpering as they chase the annoying human who is refusing to be a meal around the area. The last, after crowing triumph and getting a taste of Sam, has just enough time to shriek before the blade rends it nearly in half and it falls to the ground.

The dragon is having as much trouble, Taas catching her wing and slicing it open. She roars her anger as he and the tiny itsy bitsy gnat dwarf keep pushing her back. She couldn't save her children, and she can't seem to get at the more vulnerable combatants. Her good wing flaps, sending her sideways so she can blow fire at the group from a different angle, and her tail lashes around as she tries to smack the warriors near her away. There's a lot of blood on the ground, though, and she's definitely slowing in her movements. It's clear she's about at her last stand and using every resource she has.

As much fun as being bait is, there does come a point when Alistair is fairly confident he can handle the three dragonlings without retreating from them—they're injured, they're whimpering, and they're far enough away that they aren't going to snap at anyone else without warning. So he plants a foot and then pushes forward into them instead, slicing and smashing and briefly demonstrating that he's really fairly agile, armor and all, when he's in the mood to be.

Once they're dead he has to stop, though, bent halfway over and fumbling with the pouch that hangs over a tasset until he can pull out a vial of lyrium and knock it back before he can shake off the effects of Merrill's magic, because this world is set to nightmare difficulty and has friendly fire. He keeps his eyes on the high dragon. He can go poke it a few times if they need him, but if not, he's perfectly happy to stay here with the robes and bow.

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[Closed] High Dragon, Bye Dragon

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